Caijing

Businesswoman Solina Chau Hoi-shuen yesterday won HK$650,000 in compensation from a Hong Kong distributor of Beijing-based Caijing for defamation after the financial magazine accused her of offering a bribe to a former senior mainland official.

Despite the challenging reporting environment on the mainland, veteran journalist Hu Shuli says there are still ample opportunities for journalists to write influential and in-depth stories that can make an impact.

Businesswoman Solina Chau Hoi-shuen has sued a Hong Kong distributor of Beijing-based Caijing for defamation after the financial magazine accused her of offering a bribe to a former senior mainland official.

None of Guangdong's outspoken newspapers were allowed to report the suicide of 40-year-old Guangzhou villager Li Jie'e, who jumped to her death on May 9 after the authorities took her into custody and illegally demolished her home to make way for a redevelopment project.

It is a common way to complain about the state of affairs on the mainland. When things do not look good, the familiar refrain is that the glory days are over. That's not so much a statement as a question, however: who can bring back the good old days?

Caixin Media Group, founded two years ago by the former editor of top mainland business magazine Caijing, has received the prestigious Shorenstein Journalism Award for its commitment to journalistic integrity and the establishment of an independent media.

A glimmer of optimism crept into Hong Kong equities last week, but this was pounded out of markets on Thursday and Friday with a string of bad news: JP Morgan reported a steep drop in profit; Spain's rating was downgraded, as was UBS'; and China reported slowing export growth.

One hot topic for mainland press commentators in the past few weeks has been the global economic situation, amid fears of a downturn similar to the crisis of 2008, and what China should do to maintain its own economic health and - if possible - contribute to global growth.

Ambivalence hung over the World Economic Forum meeting that was held in Dalian, Liaoning province.

Participants were eager to compare notes but few headed home with clear answers to such questions as how Europe can solve its sovereign debt crisis, how the United States can avoid a double dip and how China can continue to lead global growth.

In what might otherwise have been hailed as big news, a State Council announcement on Thursday that it was 'actively preparing' to set up a task force to work out policy incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises was met with relative apathy.

A former deputy minister of land and resources, Li Yuan, has been stripped of his Communist Party membership and public offices for violating party discipline, Caijing Magazine reported on its website.

When I enrolled at university, a motivational book called Who Moved My Cheese by US writer Spencer Johnson, about the different ways two mice and two 'littlepeople' reacted to changes in their work and lives, was among the best-sellers on the mainland.

Nowadays, most of the mainland's 1.3 billion people face a similar question: who moved the money from my pocket?